


Hope's Flickering Flame

by ShadowObsessor01



Series: Madness of Hope [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Once Upon a Time (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, James "Bucky" Barnes is Mad Hatter | Jefferson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 04:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9303521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowObsessor01/pseuds/ShadowObsessor01
Summary: The pieces that may not end up in the actual story but are too good to pass up and fully delete.I present to you drabbles from the Madness of Hope series. Usually un-edited because they don't make it in, or pieces of these pieces do. Eh, you'll see what I mean.





	1. Before and After

The boys grow together from scrappy boys to scrawny pre-teens to skinny Steve and trim Bucky, inseparable from the other, with quickly gaining reputations of their own. Steve Rogers, scrawny-punk-who-keeps- _getting-back-_ _ **up**_ -with-pride-bigger-than-himself and Bucky Barnes, won't-pick-the-fights-but-he-sure-will- _ **end**_ -them. That is the reputation the idiots in Brooklyn have given the boys. Bucky and Steve have much different reputations for each other. Steve is "Punk" and "Trouble-maker" while Bucky is "Mama Bear" and "Jerk". Reputations are funny affairs. Based on the knowledge available to those who give them, a person's reputation can be spot on to the character and nature of said person or wildly off-mark.

In future time, the friendship of Steven Rogers and Bucky Barnes would gain a reputation of being forged in steel. Never was one parted far from the other and heaven help the villains that tried. They were fighters together, survivors apart. The world would see Captain America as the calm level-headed man with a plan while his SIC Sergeant Barnes is the epitome of passionate life and goofball antics; reality is that Steve Rogers is fire and passion and an inferno of roiling emotion while Bucky Barnes is ice and razor wit and a blizzard of protective instincts. Only what is expected is searched for and the close-minded only find what they expect. History is written by the victors and no one wants to hear the tales of the Captain's and the Sergeant's battles with each other, often over Bucky reprimanding Steve for rushing head first into a no-win battle _again -YOU ARE NOT INDESTRUCTABLE, STEVE! QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU ARE! -_ though the Commandos pass on those looked over tales for the humor they provide. Larger than life Captain America cowering behind his fancy shield while his slightly shorter best friend reams him a new one with Bucky's favored sniper rifle at the ready in wildly gesticulating hands. After hard missions, The Howling Commandos could always rely on their Captain and SIC to lighten the mood. This duo's friendship, however legendary, was also never without its own pitfalls.

Steve never shares with the Commandos just how far he knows Bucky will go – _has gone_ \- to keep Steve safe. It's a terrifying memory.

Terrifying in its truth.

Terrifying in that it is _Bucky_.

What Steve is privileged – _and he uses that word in the loosest definition in this case_ – to witness is a side of his best friend that Mrs. Barnes never knew of, that the US Army barely saw the outer edges of, that the fellow prisoners of Azzano caught glimpses directed at HYDRA's guards, and that Steve wishes he. Was. Still. IGNORANT. _Ignorance is truly bliss._ It will be over seventy years later before Steve dwells on this particular characteristic of Bucky and a few years after that in change before the reason behind this part of Bucky can be explained.

The Howling Commandos never know about Bucky's childhood bad days, though they witness a fair few during their time together as a team during the war. When the memories of Azzano and the prison camp become too much, Bucky could be found curled against Steve's side wherever the Commandos have been deployed, stifling sobs into the too broad shoulder and listening to Steve hum Amazing Grace. The old hymn was Bucky's favorite and one of the few things that could calm him quicker than a mere cuddle against someone Bucky deemed _safe_. Eventually as time passed and the team grew closer, their SIC would come to the other Commandos for comfort often enough that they all knew Bucky's song by heart. Dernier even learned it in French so he could sing Bucky to sleep in accented tenor. The Commandos never teased Bucky or Steve, never questioned where the young men's friendship really lay because as time marched on, the other Commandos took comfort in the odd routine. Their Captain and SIC had their backs always and there was no one else the Commandos wanted to lead them into battle.

Contrary-wise, the Avengers learn of Bucky's bad days and worse days through Steve. They question after Steve is released from the hospital because _Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are best friends so why is Bucky trying to kill Steve, how is Bucky even still alive?_ Steve doesn't know much beyond HYDRA is in SHEILD and what he can imagine has been done to Bucky. So instead he shares about the Bucky _before_ and what he sees in this Bucky _after._

Before: Bucky hated anything constricting around his neck. Ties were tolerable to an extent, but never scarves. Mrs. Barnes worried constantly during the freezing Brooklyn winters when Bucky would run around without a scarf to keep the chill from his skin. The blood-curdling panic attack the first winter Jimmy lived as a Barnes when Mrs. Barnes tried to put a woolen scarf around his neck dissuaded any future attempts.

Before: Bucky was a magician with anything fabric. Steve often watched Bucky make, hem, or patch clothes for a little extra cash or favors down the road. The Barnes and Rogers families may not have had much, but Bucky made sure they never lacked when it came to clothes.

Before: Bucky was a suave talker; more than once he had been able to talk the prices down to pennies when money was tight and they needed medicine or food.

Before: Bucky was a master marksman. Able to make impossible shots for normal men and knives were practically an extension of his body. _Only after the Fall would Steve learn that Bucky's skills frightened his teachers to a certain degree; it was too natural to not be something he already practiced with on a semi-daily basis. Steve kept quiet about the dark knowledge he held in regards to his best friend's preternatural ability in finding the kill points on a target with anything sharp enough to conceivably use as a weapon. Some things were better left unknown in the black of night._

Before: Bucky may have hated the war and having to kill, but he was observant to a paranoid degree. Steve was the artist of the two but Bucky noticed details in people and the surroundings that Steve often overlooked.

Before: Bucky couldn't stand silence outside the zone he created when providing sniper cover for the Commandos. The constant humming Bucky did under his breath became almost a better warning system than Steve's own super-hearing. If Bucky fell silent and the Commandos weren't a) in the middle of a battle or b) camped for the night, then he had picked up something everyone else had missed.

Before: _Bucky wouldn't hesitate to kill to protect his family._

After: The Winter Soldier was a master assassin. Powerful physically, flawless skill and form. Knives were an extension of his arm. A master marksman.

After: The Winter Soldier wore a uniform that appeared molded to his body. His neck was covered; his mouth muzzled; eyes hidden behind tinted goggles. He was not free.

After: The Winter Soldier did not speak. Not until Steve called for Bucky, until the Soldier was frantic with confusion and anxiety and pain.

After: The Winter Soldier is silence incarnate. He doesn't speak unless needed. He makes no sound aside from the usual sounds of battle.

After: The Winter Soldier would kill for the completion of his mission. _Steve is alive because the Bucky in the Soldier did not kill family._

Steve sees Bucky in the way the Soldier moves, how he handles the knife and rifle are as known to Steve as Steve's own shield. The Soldier is not Bucky but Bucky lives inside the Soldier. Therefore HYDRA will perish at Steve's hands; a promise written in blood and carried on a turbulent storm raging in summer blue eyes. A promise re-made by the Captain and the Avengers silently agree that they will be right at his side as the back-up he will require.


	2. Interlude: Emma's Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma's thoughts about Regina and Jefferson, and the implications of the history between those two.

Emma Swan does not trust Regina Mills, not with her tax dollars and certainly not with Henry, but even this odious woman does not deserves the death coming her way. Also, there is the fact that Regina raised Henry when Emma had been too cowardly and incapable herself. Points to her despite the kid's numerous psychological issues given in the process. Henry would be devastated to lose his other mother and so Regina would live if Emma has any say in the matter.

This fact alone is why Emma finds herself in Regina's monochrome (yet quite tasteful, and Emma is taking that thought to her grave) office, trusting that the woman has some way of making her insane plan work. _Henry isn't the only one going to need a therapist after this was over._ Emma hates talking about her problems, wishes to believe she doesn't have them and bottles everything inside until she _erupts_ because she can't ignore anymore. But...everything that was happening, is happening, is too much even for her iron coping mechanisms. Emma will admit just this once, that she needs someone to vent to, someone who understands, who won't judge her or kowtow to her because she's a...a _princess!_

Crystal ice eyes sparking with _madnessdesperation_ _understanding_ above a natural devilish smirk lingers in her mind. Tousled chocolate-brown hair over a forehead made just for brooding joins the mesmerizing eyes as Regina pulls out a leather case with the single most interesting shape Emma has seen to date. The case is old and battered, seen more years than Emma wishes to dwell on, and adds world-weary broad shoulders clothed in printed silk to the eyes and lips and hair and forehead in her mind. Shaped like a flower pot, Regina flips open the lid with a gentleness becoming of the aging leather hinges that groan and creak like old bones anyway and stops. Her dark eyes seek Emma's viridian, leery and questioning. There was a type of movement about Regina in that moment that strongly reminded Emma of a pet dog at one of the foster families she had lived with; he was beaten down almost as often as the children, broken in a way Emma feared would happen to her, and always cowered in a corner while snapping sharp fangs at anyone foolish enough to approach outside his terms.

"Did Henry really ask you to protect me?" her question is asked with a softness that Emma would never associate with the mayor, having only ever known Regina to be a hard woman with a diamond will.

Emma debates her answer. Regina truly gets on her nerves and that is not counting the anger Emma has in regards to the woman's treatment of Henry, still though...

Regina was Henry's mother for ten years.

Damn.

"Yes." is said with all the conviction of a woman not wanting to speak but knowing that staying silent would get things nowhere, so she is going to put every single drop of belief and truth into as few words as possible. In the end, Emma takes heart in being able to stun Regina since opportunities such as that are few and far between. The genuine smile looks pained, as if Regina was unused to smiling with true happiness. Emma recognizes that look, sees it in the mirror and every reflective surface she passes during her day. The latest revelation goes into the steel bunker with all the other new facts and truths Emma just doesn't have the time or _will_ to deal with in that moment.

With the moment passed, Regina pulls an equally old, battered top hat from the depths of the case. Emma notices that she holds it with a wary reverence, hands clasping strong and sure around the trunk like she would the reins of a high strung stallion, knowing that a steady hand is needed in checking the great power beneath her. Regina eyes the hat with a strange mixture of disgust and fascination, like a teenager presented with a hated dish from childhood yet now the smell is tantalizing and the idea of eating not so stomach turning. Then Emma registers the hat itself, the familiar top hat shape and pattern of fabric faded in places from a pure silk black to dusky charcoal grey. A dust rose ribbon, aged in a way that Emma almost can't believe is from years passing but rather a lack of, well...magic. Much like its true owner and if Emma wasn't in such shock seeing the original of the hat she had spent practically an entire night recreating under the directions of a not-so-mad mad man, she would be furious all over again because this was just more proof against Regina.

Emma is hit with a sudden desire to snatch the hat from Regina's hands and run back to Jefferson, to give him back the second missing piece of his soul because at that moment, no matter how much she wishes she could, Emma can't give him back his daughter. There is no denying now that the little girl he had watched (possibly obsessively) for twenty-eight years is his daughter, his Grace. Henry's book had confirmed Jefferson's story (and she wasn't denying the irony of the Mad Hatter being the only one to tell her the truth besides a ten year old and an old storybook) but Emma is a skeptic by experienced necessity and it takes a lot to make her believe something as unbelievable as a fairytale cursed town. A flesh and blood dragon certainly helped obliterate her disbelief.

"The Hat." Emma can't take her eyes away from Jefferson's possession; the whispered awe and disbelief flying free. Pricks of remembered pain flair in her fingertips. The soft slick feel of the silk ribbon, the rougher scratch of patterned velvet, the stiff wire framing that she had molded her hat around danced as a phantom sense against her hands. She doesn't look at Regina, does not wish to think of the implications regarding Jefferson's "Magic Hat" in her scheming hands.

"I'm sorry, what are you on about Miss Swan?"

"The Hat. That's Jefferson's Hat!" Emma is watching the woman like a starving hawk, nothing escaping her trained gaze including the quite noticeable pause.

"Excuse me, who?"

Every instinct in Emma is blaring World War Two air raid sirens: **LIAR!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drabble piece two. This was originally going to be the beginning of the third chapter, an interlude chapter finally introducing the OUAT part of this crossover. However, I figured out a much better way of beginning Emma's part of the story. This little piece was too much of a jem to pass up though, so it joins the ranks of Drabbles.
> 
> I hope I've kept these two strong women within character. Let me know what you lovely readers think.
> 
> The ending probably seemed abrupt, but that is where I ended it before coming up with the idea I ended up going with.
> 
> As with this entire series, this is also cross-posted to Fanfiction.Net under the same name.

**Author's Note:**

> I Don't own Marvel or Disney/ABC. Wish I did, but I don't! I do own copies of the movies and all current seasons save for season five (Waiting to split the cost with my sister and fellow fan/long-suffering sounding board. Seriously, her and a good friend of mine we will call Trinity are absolutely marvelous souls to listen to me rant and talk out my mad ideas for three or four hours straight. It has been timed, trust me. It is thanks to these two if this story turns out any good so give them props in your reviews! If you like it and the idea. If not...keep your flames on me. I actually need the suntan not them. Writers are practically Word Vampires (Wompires? Sounds Star Wars) so we don't get much sun.) Okay rant/kudos/legal dues over and done with, enjoy!


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